When I was [under 18] years old, I was in a relationship with someone slightly older than me. He was the [relative] of one of my best friends at the time. One day he took me to a PUBLIC[place] after drowning me in alcohol. I was not in a position to defend myself because of how much alcohol he had me consume at the time. He attempted to rape me in a [place]. I thought nothing of it at the time. It had scarred me mentally and physically. This guy still stalks me even to this very day. I keep telling my local police force ([place]) that he still stalks me, and they do absolutely nothing because he does it on odd occasions (say 2 or 3 times a month). He was warned to stay away from me a few years ago, he never did, and the police never did anything about him breaking those conditions either. They said ‘because you had alcohol it was your choice’ although it was not my choice as I was threatened by him, and several members of his family. His family ran the [group] that I was [leader] of. They used him to abuse their position of trust and said ‘if you do not do what he wants then you will be stripped of[leader]’ and low and behold, when the police did get involved, I was stripped of being [leader].
Recommendations for the government:
- Police must believe victims right from the start. A victim support officer for minors would be a good start, so if they do not want to tell their designated responsible adult, then there is someone who is trained in law to deal with it.
- Preference of whether to be interviewed by a lady officer or not as I was not given that option. A man officer dealt with my case all the way until they decided to drop it.
- Urgent victim support for minors so they are not left waiting
- Relevent agencies to notify education establishments as to whether there is an ongoing case with a child, so extra care can be put into place for them.
February 2018